What is Plagiarism?

What is Plagiarism?

Some people already have their own definition of plagiarism. They even know the depth and strength of the action, including the punishment for this act. However, there are still some that continue to plagiarize. Why do this happen? What should be done to avoid this?
Among anything else, every individual should be reminded that plagiarism is an act of stealing. When one plagiarizes, he is already stealing someoneТs intellectual property. More so, everybody knows that stealing is prohibited by the law and it demands a certain punishment once caught. In addition, dictionaries define this act as some form of theft in the literary world wherein the perpetrator claims the stolen property as oneТs own.
Despite the definition and punishment that the act of plagiarizing may cause, there are still some people that continue to do this prohibited act. It seems that they, mostly students, are not afraid of getting a failing mark or be expelled from school. Especially on the case of the student, what follows are the most common reasons why plagiarism is performed:

There is no enough time to work on the paper.

There are already other people that do it but are not caught

It is difficult to rewrite someoneТs work and put it into own words.

Even if the concept of plagiarism is quite complicated and takes a lot of forms, there is an easy solution to it. The basic solution to avoid committing plagiarism is to cite the references. It is a necessity that the writer be able to know how to indicate in the paper who are his sources of information. Moreover, in paraphrasing, the writer should remember that he does not have to just change the words of the original text. He also should change the sentence structure and use his own words. In the end of the text, citation is still a necessity.
Just to reiterate the basic idea of plagiarism and be able to inculcate it to most writers mind, one should remember that it is still an act of stealing. Whatever forms of plagiarism is done, one is still committing an act of theft. With this, one should always remember that stealing is prohibited and it is punished by the law. If one does not want to be punished, he should follow the rules properly and take some time and effort in writing the paper properly. After all, doing the right thing is still for the writerТs own benefit.